This volume consists of a series of essays inspired by Freud's paper on Jensen's novel Gradiva - "she who steps along." In the story a young archaeologist, Norbert Hanold, suffers from delusions but is able to unravel the mysteries of his emotional life and mind with the aid of a woman who does not challenge these delusions, but rather "steps along" with Hanold, gradually helping him to disentangle truth from fantasy, through what Freud called "cure by love". Gradiva, originally felt to be the source of Hanold's malady, eventually becomes the agent of its resolution and of his return to health. This extraordinary tale formed the basis for the author's concept of "taking the transference". Through clinical vignettes, various aspects of psychoanalytic technique - useful from the first encounter between patient and analyst and throughout the process of the development of mind to termination - are illustrated in detail.

This book presents the theories and observations of each major contributor to the discussion of psychoanalytic technique and reveals the particular advantages and disadvantages which fall to the various theoretical positions and orientations adopted by each contributor.

This collection of selected papers explores psychoanalytic technique, exemplifying Fred Busch’s singular contribution to this subject, alongside the breadth and depth of his work. Covering key topics such as what is unique about psychoanalysis, interpretation, psychic truth, the role of memory and the importance of the analyst's reveries, this book brings together the author's most important work on this subject for the first time. Taken as a whole, Busch’s work has provided an updated Freudian model for a curative process through psychoanalysis, along with the techniques to accomplish this. Meticulous in providing the theoretical underpinnings for their conclusions, these essays depict how Busch, as a humanist, has continuously championed what in retrospect seems basic to psychoanalytic technique but which has not always been at the forefront of our thinking: the patient’s capacity to hear, understand and emotionally feel interventions. Presenting a deep appreciation for Freudian theory, this book also integrates the work of analysts from Europe and Latin America, which has been prevalent in his recent work. Comprehensive and clear, these works focus on clinical issues, providing numerous examples of work with patients whilst also presenting concise explanations of the theoretical background. In giving new meaning to basic principles of technique and in reviving older methods with a new focus, A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Technique will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists.

In this provocative contribution to both psychoanalytic theory and the philosophy of science, Louis Berger grapples with the nature of "consequential" theorizing, i.e., theorizing that is relevant to what transpires in clinical practice. By examining analysis as a genre of "state process formalism" - the standard format of scientific theories - Berger demonstrates why contemporary theorizing inevitably fails to explain crucial aspects of practice. His critique, in this respect, pertains both to the formal structure of psychoanalytic explanation and the technical language through which this structure gains expression. The pragmatic recommendations that issue from this critique are illustrated with respect to a number of perennial problem areas besetting analysis and cognate disciplines. In a discussion that encompases theories of affect, issues in family therapy, the nature of first-language acquisition, and the philisophical topics of free will and determinism, Berger shows that certain systems of representation (including ordinary language) can describe the psychological realm adequately, and that such systems necessarily follow modern physics in rejecting naive assumptions about the separability of theory and practice. His proposals culminate in a "nonhierarchical" conception of psychoanalytic theory that assigns a separate status to the clinically pragmatic level of theorizing. In both his critique of contemporary analysis and his reconstructive proposals, Berger fuses into a highly readable argument a fascinating range of insights culled from epistemology, linguistics, physics, logic, computer science, history, and aesthetics. More impressively still, he demonstrates how an investigation of psychoanalytic theory can serve as a vehicle for examining pervasive epistemological issues in both philosophy and the social sciences.

In this important book, esteemed psychoanalyst Otto F. Kernberg reviews some of the recent developments and controversies in psychoanalytic theory and technique. Gathering together both previously published articles and extensive new material, Dr. Kernberg examines such issues as the new psychoanalytic views of homosexuality, bisexuality, and the influence of gender in the analytic relationship. He explores the application of psychoanalysis to non-clinical fields, including the problem of psychoanalytic research and its clinical implications, the validation of psychoanalytic interventions in the clinical process, and the challenges of psychoanalytic education. He shows how psychoanalysis can be helpful in addressing such cultural problems as socially sanctioned violence. And he asserts the continued relevance of object relations theory and its compatibility with Freud’s dual drive theory.

An introduction to psychoanalytic technique from a Lacanian perspective. What does it mean to practice psychoanalysis as Jacques Lacan did? How did Lacan translate his original theoretical insights into moment-to-moment psychoanalytic technique? And what makes a Lacanian approach to treatment different from other approaches? These are among the questions that Bruce Fink, a leading translator and expositor of Lacan's work, addresses in Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique by describing and amply exemplifying the innovative techniques (such as punctuation, scansion, and oracular interpretation) developed by Lacan to uncover unconscious desire, lift repression, and bring about change. Unlike any other writer on Lacan to date, Fink illustrates his Lacanian approach to listening, questioning, punctuating, scanding, and interpreting with dozens of actual clinical examples. He clearly outlines the fundamentals of working with dreams, daydreams, and fantasies, discussing numerous anxiety dreams, nightmares, and fantasies told to him by his own patients. By examining transference and countertransference in detail through the use of clinical vignettes, Fink lays out the major differences (regarding transference interpretation, self-disclosure, projective identification, and the therapeutic frame) between mainstream psychoanalytic practice and Lacanian practice. He critiques the ever more prevalent normalizing attitude in psychoanalysis today and presents crucial facets of Lacan's approach to the treatment of neurosis, as well as of his entirely different approach to the treatment of psychosis. Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique is an introduction to psychoanalytic technique from a Lacanian perspective that is based on Fink's many years of experience working as an analyst and supervising clinicians, including graduate students in clinical psychology, social workers, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and psychoanalysts. Designed for a wide range of practitioners and requiring no previous knowledge of Lacan's work, this primer is accessible to therapists of many different persuasions with diverse degrees of clinical experience, from novices to seasoned analysts. Fink's goal throughout is to present the implications of Lacan's highly novel work for psychoanalytic technique across a broad spectrum of interventions. The techniques covered (all of which are designed to get at the unconscious, repression, and repetition compulsion) can be helpful to a wide variety of practitioners, often transforming their practices radically in a few short months.

New diversity in psychoanalytic technique offers analysts and therapists a wide array of treatment options. But many of these techniques, says Dr. Fred Pine, can be viewed as additions to a clinician's approach rather than substitutes. Access to more treatment choices enables the clinician to better meet the multiple challenges encountered daily in a psychoanalytic practice. Dr. Pine urges clinicians to be flexible and integrative as they select, test, and then use or reject diverse treatment techniques, and he shows how this may be done. He warns that adhering too closely to a powerful theory of technique can prevent the therapist from doing the best for the patient. This book is both a highly personal statement by an experienced clinician and teacher and a concise discussion of selected issues that confront the practicing psychoanalyst today. Focusing specifically on technique, the volume is rich in clinical reasoning, clinical concepts, and clinical examples. The author establishes some of the sources of the current diversity in technique, then illustrates and evaluates some of the many pathways the clinician may choose. Practicing psychoanalysts and therapists will find enrichment in the intellectual searchings and open-minded approach of this valuable book.

Psychoanalytic Method in Motion identifies and examines varied controversies about how psychoanalysts believe treatment should best be conducted. Irrespective of their particular school of thought, every analyst builds up a repertoire of his favored ways of working, which some analysts come to see as the most efficacious approach to treatment available. While such differences of opinion are unsettling, and may even threaten to tear the field asunder, this book sees these differences as benefitting psychoanalysis by improving the ways in which psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists practice. In this book, Richard Tuch covers the waterfront by examining controversies that further the field by raising questions that help evolve the treatment, challenging every analyst to re-think what they are doing in the consulting room...and why. Some of the chief controversies explored include: the enactment debate—unparalleled tool or regrettable error? whether analysts can truly be "objective"—whatever that means the advantages and disadvantages arising from the analyst’s use of authority the ways in which theory influences the analyst’s search for data—blinding him to evidence he implicitly discards as irrelevant whether any given treatment approach is more efficacious than others, as some analysts claim the legitimacy of psychoanalysis itself—whether it can truly be considered scientific whether certain methods of supervision are more effective than others whether free association can be considered therapeutic in and of itself the extent to which an analyst preferred clinical theory is a product of his personality Drawing on ideas from a range of different analytic perspectives, this book is an essential and accessibly written guide to working towards best practice in the analytic setting. Psychoanalytic Method in Motion will appeal greatly to both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

A clear and thorough introduction to techniques and practice issues, as well as basic theoretical frameworks, for beginners. Psychoanalysis is not so much skill-based, as dependent upon the development of the analytic attitude, guided by principles of technique that are used in the clinical situation. Alessandra Lemma's accessible guide has been based on her long experience of teaching trainee practitioners. It includes discussion of interventions and the possible dynamics associated with the different stages of therapy: assessment, beginnings, middle and end phases of therapy. It exposes the rationale underlying a range of interventions and discusses research evidence where relevant and available. Written by a well known author with plenty of practical experience Introductory and aimed at trainees Uniquely, it combines practical advice with theoretical explanation